Employee Performance Management can be a superpower, a boring tick and flick, or non-existent, from workplace to workplace. A key finding after consulting to so many businesses, is the prevalence of the dull, annual, or bi-annual self-assessment tool followed by a manager’s scorecard approach, that usually ends in a disheartening conversation, disagreement, with nobody any clearer on what they did well.

This often leads to workplaces leaving performance reviews behind, thinking they produce no value for the time invested. Every workplace will and should benefit from performance management. The trick is developing one that works for you.

Where to Start

The first item to clarify is what type of workplace you have.

Are you a new team, small and nimble, starting something up, needing people who can work flexibly, wear all the hats, and collaborate well in all areas?

Are you an established workplace entering a new phase of growth, focused on revenue creation, optimising every seat in the team, wanting to see fast improvements?

Are you a larger workplace, with established performance incentives tied to performance reviews, and require categorised and measurable performance outcomes to identify a person’s bonus amount?

We can see pretty quickly; the outcome of a performance management system varies depending on an endless list of elements that drive the workplace.

So why has the old school performance management approach prevailed?

Truthfully, that old school method of employee performance management comes out of (no surprise) larger employers, tier 1 operators with large teams that value consistency of management, rather than tailored and customised team, performance strategies.

The larger your team becomes, the harder it is to ensure equality and remove bias from performance management and rewards. Standardising (and boring everyone to death in the process) becomes less risky than fighting off hundreds of favouritism claims.

Here are some questions to ask, before developing a performance system.

Strategy:

Have you got one? No? You’ll have a difficult time managing performance. Yes? Great, lets review that strategy and determine the outcomes your business seeks to achieve.

Degree of difficulty:

Do your strategic objectives stretch your workplace beyond its capacity, today? That’s difficult and requires more of a breakdown of steps towards achieving those objectives. That means 30-to-90-day performance reviews set against clear 90-day plans. Conversations are needed to drive activity in the right direction, with regular feedback so people know if they’re contributing, staying engaged.

Does your strategy seek to consolidate and firm up a client base, neither growing nor shrinking, but focused on retention? You need people focused on relationship development and customer support. Your performance metrics will be focused on quality control and process improvement, not needing such a high volume of assessment conversations.

Identify your motivators, some will need less check-in frequency.

2-way conversations:

Is your workplace one that freely discusses challenges, ideas, and feedback? No – you’ll have some work to do to create the type of environment where people feel free and safe to contribute.

Why is this important?

Your people need role clarity, direction, and guidance from leaders. Leaders need frontline feedback, process assessments, and improvement suggestions from their frontline people.

Setting people up for failure occurs when the conversation is one-way. A leader needs to identify where the roadblocks to success are and remove every single one of them. This ensures that performance management of employees is relevant to the actions possible by the employees.

That’s a starting point

Take those questions, gather your data, and determine the following:

How much clarity do our people have, prior to commencing a period of performance review and management?

How much time do our people realistically need to achieve strategic outcomes on the way to realise the company’s goals?

How frequently do we need to sit down and talk about the priorities, check progress, or realign the focus for the next performance management and review period?

How helpful are my conversations and reviews, and am I getting all the information I need to hold these discussions effectively?

Get creative

Now, go ahead and design the best performance management system that aligns to your team.

Avoid a Google search for performance management templates or performance review meeting questions. They’ll only cloud your judgement.

Everything you need to know to create the most effective employee performance management system or framework already exists inside your organisation.

Of course – the alternative is to seek advice from the professionals. But a warning must be heard. Steer clear of advisors or consultants that push you into the old school, standard approach many businesses have run for years. They don’t work for larger employees, where they were developed, and they certainly won’t do much for smaller workplaces or organisations that want to drive change and transformation.

To talk with our team about developing the best performance management system in your workplace, contact us here, or call 1300 138 211.